The Thin Line
by Kirihana
Summary: Post series, two shot.  Zuko and Katara haven't seen each other in seven years, and there are some feelings that still need to be resolved.
1. The Thin Line

I'm a rabid Zutarian (as most of my fans know), so why I'm writing this remains a mystery. The idea came to me and got combined with several pieces I had from a fic I started after seeing the Season Three trailer. This differs from my usual work in that most of it is in present tense (except for the flashbacks), and the paragraphs are almost drabble-ish. Enjoy!

I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

**The Thin Line**

_The dark of the cell wasn't what bothered Katara. There were no windows, so she hadn't seen natural light of any kind in nearly a week. No, it was the not knowing that made her restless. _

_She'd been captured, and she didn't know what had happened to Aang, Toph, and Sokka. _

No, Katara reminds herself. That was seven years ago, and going to the Fire Nation now should not bring up such less-than-pleasant memories. A small hand tugs at her skirt, and she turns away from the ship's railing. She looks down into a pair of wide blue eyes, and Katara smiles. She lifts her son with practiced ease. "Look, Kinen," she whispers to the two-year-old, pointing at the distant land mass just visible through the morning mist. "That's the Fire Nation."

"From the stories?" Kinen asks. He knows them all, because he hears them every night.

Katara nods. "From the stories," she confirms.

Her husband sneaks up behind them and wraps his arms around Katara's waist, leaning his head on her left shoulder while Kinen does the same thing on the right. "Have you been telling him about the glory days again?" Sunen teases.

Katara laughs. "They were hardly glorious." He releases her, and she passes their son to him. Sunen lifts Kinen high into the air quickly, as though he is going to throw him, earning a happy squeal from the toddler. Katara giggles, and her husband catches her eye. He sees her joy, and he sees something else. It troubles him, and he puts their son down. "Little one, why don't you go wake up Uncle Sokka for us?"

Kinen grins and dashes off. Katara leans against the railing once more, facing the ever-closer Fire Nation. Sunen also leans against the railing, but backwards, so it is easier to watch his wife's face. "You're afraid of going back, aren't you?"

"I shouldn't be. It will be nice to see Aang and Toph again; they haven't visited in at least a year." It has actually been almost three years, since before Kinen was born, but Sunen doesn't comment on that. Katara continues. "But I haven't been here since… since Zuko's coronation. Aang says it's changed, that the people are much friendlier. I believe him. There's just something nagging at me, saying 'No, don't go there, don't do it'. And I don't know why."

Sunen's expression darkens. "It wouldn't happen to have anything to do with the Fire Lord, would it?"

Katara stares at him. "How could you think that?"

"You know how."

Katara looks away. That too ended seven years ago, along with the war. She'd met Sunen when she was eighteen and visiting the Northern Water Tribe. He was four years older than her and a non-bender. They were married when she was nineteen, and their 

son was born a year later. Katara feels guilty, because her husband seems to know all about the things she'd felt when she was fifteen and still believed that opposites attracted.

"Maybe you're right," she says slowly. "Maybe it does have something to do with him."

* * *

"_You're to be executed tomorrow." _

"_So be it," Katara whispered. Even then, even knowing the rest of her life was now counted in hours instead of years, she wouldn't give in. _

"_I thought that your life actually meant something to you." _

"_It does, but there are other things that are more important. Like honor," Katara said pointedly. _

_Zuko glared at her. "And just what would you know about honor?" _

"_More than you, if your actions are any indication. Is it really your honor that you've gained, Zuko, or just the favor of your family? Favor that could be snatched away at Azula's merest whim, and you know it's only a matter of time before that happens."_

_The words stung, but he wasn't about to tell her that. Instead he turned away and left the prison and the waterbender behind. _

Zuko shifts in his sleep, letting out a soft groan and a name that he only says when he's asleep.

"_You're dismissed," Zuko told the guards. They didn't move. Zuko frowned. "I said you're dismissed," he repeated. _

"_Forgive us, your highness, but our orders are to stay with the prisoner at all times." _

"_You can return as soon as I've finished speaking with her." _

"_We're sorry, your highness, but we were also ordered not to leave anyone alone with the prisoner." _

_Realization came slowly, and the idea made Zuko sick. "Who gave you these orders?" _

"_Princess Azula, your highness." _

"_When?" _

_The guard hesitated, confirming Zuko's suspicions. He still wanted to hear it. "WHEN?" he bellowed. _

_The guard shrank back. "After your previous visit, your highness. The princess also said that we were to report every word of any future conversations you and the prisoner had." _

_Zuko turned away. So Katara had been right all along. _

The golden eyes open, and Zuko blinks as he realizes that the memory was a dream. He is no longer seventeen, and his father is no longer Fire Lord. Azula is no longer alive to manipulate him. He sighs and drifts back to sleep.

The woman beside him, however, remains awake.

* * *

"Presenting His Majesty Fire Lord Zuko and his consort, Princess Mai."

Katara's eyes widen. She isn't sure what hurts the most: that Zuko never told her he was getting (got, she corrects herself instantly) married, that Mai is very obviously pregnant, or that she is not the one standing by his side right now. Sunen puts his hand on her waist possessively.

"_Are you going back to the palace?" _

"_I have to. Azula will find it even more suspicious if the Blue Spirit has appeared and I'm missing. Will you be all right alone?" _

"_I think so. I'm more worried about what's going to happen to you." _

"_Don't be. Anything I get will be no more than I deserve." _

_She smiled, though sadly. "If you survive, will you look for us? It won't exactly be safe, but…" _

"_I'll try." _

_They both looked at the ground, wondering what else there was to say. _

"_Zuko," Katara began. _

"_Katara," Zuko said at the same time. _

_They both smiled. It was easier, now, somehow. Zuko put his hand on the back of Katara's head and pulled her forward until their lips met. The kiss was brief, but not meaningless. _

"_Was that your first kiss?" Zuko asked when they parted. He shouldn't have been so nosy, but he wanted to know. _

_Katara shook her head. "No. Yours?" _

"_No." _

When he sees the man with one hand touching Katara's waist and the other holding on to a blue-eyed toddler, Zuko has to remind himself that he cannot be jealous. He has no right to be. Mai's hand brushes his, and he takes it. She squeezes his hand, as though to reassure him. It isn't enough, but it will have to do.

Katara stares out at the turtleduck pond. She doesn't know why she's still here. True, Aang and Toph's arrival was delayed by storms, so she can use the excuse of waiting for them. The rest of her family went back to the South Pole yesterday. She tries not to remember the confusion in her son's eyes, and the hurt in her husband's, when she explained to them that she couldn't leave yet. Sunen asked her why, and she couldn't answer him because she didn't know. She still doesn't, but still she stays.

She says nothing as Iroh sits next to her on the stone bench. She likes the old general, but she has nothing to say.

Iroh sighs. "Did anyone tell you, Lady Katara, that there is a law requiring the Fire Lord to marry only a maiden belonging to the Fire Nation nobility?"

Katara sniffs. That explains everything and nothing at once, and she tells the general so.

"Perhaps," he says with another sigh. "I simply thought you might like to know." He rises, with a small amount of difficulty and creaking bones. He walks away slowly. Katara continues to watch the turtleducks.

Another person sits in the place Iroh has vacated, like him in the lack of ease, but hers is for different reason.

Katara glances sideways at the newcomer, not really turning her head. "How far along are you?"

"The doctors say it could be any day now," Mai replies.

Katara redirects her gaze, this time to the ground. "Have you thought of any names?" She's only being polite, and both of them know it.

"Zuko has. He wants to name the child, so I'm letting him."

"Don't you care?" The words slip out, her tone icier than she means for it to be.

Mai closes her eyes. "Of course I care. I wish I didn't."

Katara turns in surprise. Mai doesn't look at the waterbender, but keeps speaking. "I heard the old man tell you about the marriage law. What he didn't tell you is that Zuko tried to change it. He spent weeks carving something in his room, something he hid 

whenever someone caught him at it, while the council deliberated on the matter. When they refused to change the law, he spent another two weeks sulking."

She tilts her head toward the sky and opens her pale, pale gold eyes again. "Our marriage was arranged by the council, but Zuko asked me in person. I accepted the offer, knowing that I would always be second. It doesn't matter how many sons I give him, how loyal I am to him, how long we are married. It will never be my name he whispers in his sleep."

Katara shivers, because she wonders if she too whispers a name at night that is not her spouse's. Is that how Sunen knows?

"Did you know that his favorite color is blue?" Mai asks. "He never wears it; it wouldn't be appropriate. But I know." She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a dark red ribbon, from which hangs a carved blue stone. "He doesn't know I took this. He kept it in a box in our room. He touches the box everyday, but he never opens it. Finally I opened it when he wasn't there, and I understood. He made this nearly five years ago, and he made it for you."

Katara stares at the necklace and unconsciously reaches for it. Mai hands it over without hesitation.

"You should have it," the Fire Lord's wife says.

"Thank you," Katara murmurs, but she doesn't know why. The necklace isn't a gift.

Mai leaves, and Katara is once again alone in front of the turtleduck pond.

As Mai did the moment she held the necklace, Katara now understands.

* * *

"Please say you hate me," Zuko says softly as Katara steps into his office. He's been hiding here for the past week, and even the announcement of his daughter's birth has not been able to pull him out.

Katara shakes her head. She refuses to pity him. "I don't hate you."

"I hate me."

"Mai's waiting to find out what you're naming your daughter," she says. The ice has returned to her voice, and she keeps reminding herself that he deserves it. "She's beautiful, by the way. The baby. She looks like you."

She may as well be flinging daggers at his heart. "She should be yours."

"Don't say that, Zuko. Come on, Mai's waiting. The entire nation is waiting."

He stood up and reached for her. Katara blushed as the Fire Lord held her close. It had been so long since they'd been together like this, but… did she even want it anymore? "Zuko, please…" Please what? Don't? Don't stop? What did she want?

"Do you want to know what I'm naming my daughter? Her name… is Zutara."

Katara pulled away. "How cruel and selfish can you be?" she cried. This was the answer, then. This was the truth. "Mai loves you! She knows she's second in your heart and yet she loves you with all of hers! And every time you do something like this, you hurt her even more!" She brandishes the necklace he'd made, the one she's carried with her for the past three days.

Zuko stares at the piece of jewelry dangling from Katara's hand. "Where did you get that?" he breathes.

"Mai gave it to me," she spits. "You can have it back, if you want." She's daring him to take it, daring him to change the love she's had for him into true hate. Daring him to push her across that thin, thin line between the two.

He turns away. "No, you keep it. It was supposed to be yours anyway."

* * *

Mai blinks at the sight of her husband holding their newborn daughter, trying to determine if it's real or she's fallen asleep and this is just another fantasy. "Zuko?"

He smiles at her. "She's beautiful. So are you."

Mai doesn't return the smile. Not yet. "What's her name?" she asks, hating for a moment that the condition of her heart depends so desperately on his answer.

"Her name," Zuko says softly, "is Ursa. For my mother."

Now Mai smiles. It's easier to do so now than it has ever been. "Ursa," she repeats. "I like it."

"That's unusual."

"Well, I can't hate everything."

They kiss, and Katara, watching from the doorway, turns to leave. She is going to pack, because she's leaving in the morning. She only hopes that Sunen will forgive her.

* * *

Sixteen-year-old Ursa stares in amazement at the waterbending master. Normally the bending exhibitions at the summer solstice festival bore her (as so much does), but this time she simply can't look away from the young man with sparkling blue eyes.

Something in the back of her mind tells her that love at first sight is real, and this is how it feels.

When he's finishes, Ursa pushes her way through the applauding audience so that she can reach the platform before he leaves. He turns to go just as she gets there, and she shouts for him to wait.

He stops and turns around. The girl who called to him is beautiful, he thinks instantly. That she's obviously from the Fire Nation doesn't register, and thanks to his mother's many teachings it wouldn't have mattered if it did.

"What's your name?" the girl asks breathlessly.

The boy smiles. "I'm Kinen."

--The End--

I'm sorry if this is the weirdest thing I've ever written. Feel free to give me criticism or praise as you see fit.


	2. Endings

Wow, I really wasn't expecting that sort of response to this! And since so many of you wanted something with Ursa and Kinen… I went ahead and wrote this. It's still from Zuko and Katara's points of view, though, and there's a significant amount of time-skipping between some paragraphs. I tried to explain it, so hopefully none of you will get confused. Enjoy!

I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

**Endings**

At seventeen Zuko leans closer to Mai, and their lips meet.

_The hand that touched his cheek was cool. No one had touched his scar since he'd received it. The blue eyes clearly expressed their owner's willingness to help him, and all he could think of was "why?" _

_Why did she want to help him, after all of the horrible things he'd done to her and her friends? Yes, they'd discovered something they had in common, but that couldn't be her only reason. What did she see in him that he'd missed somehow? _

Zuko jerks back. Mai stares at him in confusion before quickly regaining her composure and her eternally bored expression.

"Something wrong?"

"It's nothing," Zuko lies. Then he kisses her again.

* * *

At forty Zuko is numb as he hears his sixteen-year-old daughter tell her mother about the waterbender she has fallen in love with. Because no matter what the council might say to the contrary, as a girl Princess Ursa has no obligations to the Fire Nation when it comes to marriage. She is allowed, technically, to love whoever she wants. And so she falls in love with a man from the Southern Water Tribes. It is only life's perfect irony, or perhaps one of the many spirits, that ensures that the man she falls in love with is in fact Katara's son.

It was said, not only by Katara but later, that Ursa looked like her father. Apparently the princess was like the Fire Lord in more than looks.

But Ursa is blissfully unaware of all of this. "And his eyes, Mother, are just the purest blue! Like the heart of a flame," she says dreamily, not knowing that both of her parents' hearts are breaking; Zuko's from his daughter's words and the memories they inspire, Mai's from the look on Zuko's face.

* * *

Katara does not have to force a smile as Kinen describes the girl he met at the Solstice Festival. She feels that she has always known this would happen, and cannot help but be happy for her son. She giggles as Sunen slaps his son on the back and says something about a "talk."

It is strange, perhaps, when she realizes that Kinen looks more like her than he looks like his father. He acts like her too.

* * *

Zuko fights the urge to smile as his fourteen-year-old son, Kuzon, pulls the hair of Aang and Toph's thirteen-year-old daughter Yangchen. The Fire Nation's crown prince is smacked with a gust of air for his audacity.

The Fire Lord can see the future of their interactions, and he feels that they will be a good match. Unlike his father more nearly twenty years ago, Kuzon is not restricted by any laws with regards to his eventual marriage. That much Zuko has finally managed to get the council to agree to, even if it is too late for him.

Ursa rushes into the garden, her face bright with joy. She is seventeen now, and though Zuko has avoided the thought, he knows what the blue pendant she wears around her neck means.

* * *

It shouldn't be this way, Katara thinks for a moment, and yet she knows it is far too late for things to change.

Kinen is almost twenty, and today he is marrying the princess of the Fire Nation.

Katara is happy for her son; she likes Ursa and knows that the two love each other with all of their hearts. They deserve the happiness they will have, the happiness that eluded his mother and her father.

Yet as she sees the two of them together, she keeps thinking that the colors are reversed: the man should have the dark hair and golden eyes; the girl should be tan-skinned with eyes of blue. But that is not how things are, nor shall they ever be that way.

Katara loves her husband, but she can't help but notice that while she and Sunen have only Kinen, there are two boys sitting beside Zuko and Mai, sharing their features.

* * *

It is the hardest news Zuko has ever had to give. He wishes he could ask someone else to tell her, but he knows that Ursa would be even more upset if he did that.

They were married for only six months.

Mai holds her daughter as she sobs, wishing (and not for the first time) that things were not as they were. Zuko continues to explain, repeating the tale the Earth Kingdom messenger told him less than an hour ago.

Kinen was on his way to Ba Sing Se for a diplomatic mission. It was to have been a mark of the Fire Lord's trust in his son-in-law. Instead his ship was attacked by pirates, and though another ship rushed to the scene to help, they were too late. Kinen is dead, Ursa is a widow at eighteen, and Zuko wonders if anything will ever work out like it should.

* * *

Katara's only comfort comes several months later, in the form of a blue-eyed grandson. Ursa names him after her husband; there was never any question of the child's name. And then Ursa does something her mother-in-law did not expect.

"Can I come live with you in the South Pole?"

Katara stares blankly at the young woman. The golden eyes are pleading, in a face so like her father's that the waterbender knows she will not be able to deny this request. Sunen will not be happy. Zuko will not be happy. Mai… well, Mai is likely to understand more than either of their husbands.

"Yes," she whispers, still looking at her grandson. "When you are well again, you can come live with us."

He will be a waterbender. She knows this; never mind that his mother is a non-bender and of Fire Nation descent. This Kinen, like his father, will be a waterbender, and he will learn from the best teacher the South Pole has to offer. She promises that, even though he is too young to understand such promises. Ursa understands, and she agrees.

* * *

Zuko feels old. He is justified; the Great War has been over for nearly fifty years. Kuzon is married to Yangchen, and they have five children. Zuko shouldn't have favorites, but he does: the eldest boy, named for a long-dead uncle. Zuko's second son, Issei, acts as representative of their nation in the Earth King's court. Ursa married again when her son was five and had three daughters with her second husband.

Mai is dead, having succumbed to an illness at the age of forty-eight. Zuko stayed by her side the entire time. Now he has, against custom, seen Kuzon crowned Fire Lord. Normally the next Fire Lord is not crowned until the previous one is deceased, but Zuko does not intend to die in the Fire Nation. Even though it was something he decided at seventeen, the idea stuck with him all these years.

He doesn't know why it took him so long to do this. This is something he's wanted ever since he was a boy, ever since… but no, he learned long ago not to dwell on that.

He crushes the letter in his hand, the letter that arrived only a week before. It was in Ursa's handwriting, telling him that her youngest daughter has just given birth to twins: a boy and a girl named Zuko and Katara. That is not his daughter's only news; she also writes that Sunen has died.

Zuko almost hates himself for only going to her now that Sunen is dead. It is the night of Ursa's birth all over again, and yet he prays this time it will end differently. The situation is different, and they are different. Why shouldn't the ending be different too?

* * *

Katara is sixty-five. Her hair is no longer dark brown but gray, and her skin is wrinkled. She has seen her grandson grow up; she taught him everything she knew about waterbending. She expects him to do the same for the blue-eyed little girl he now holds, his niece. For, as she knew when she first held her grandson, Katara knows that her namesake will be a waterbender. That the little girl's twin will be a firebender she knows with equal certainty, despite the skipped generations.

Another woman of the tribe enters the tent and whispers something to Ursa, who stares at the woman in surprise before thanking her. Ursa turned to Katara, who she still calls "Mom", and motions for the older woman to follow her outside.

Until now, Katara could list the greatest joys in her life on one hand. The sorrows would take many pages, the freshest being the death of Sunen. She did love her husband, no matter what anyone else might have thought. But her first and truest love was a man she knew better as a boy. Even as he stands before her now, shivering in the climate much colder than what he is accustomed to, she does not see the aged, gray-haired and bearded Fire Lord.

She sees the boy, just as he sees the girl.

At long last, it is enough.

--The End--

That's probably not what any of you were expecting, but that's what came out of my brain. It may have taken them fifty years, but Zuko and Katara finally got a happy ending. Thanks for reading, and please review!


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